The present disclosure relates to three-dimensional printing. In particular, the present disclosure relates to three-dimensional printing employing UV curable solid inks capable of carrying diverse colorants.
Three-dimensional (3D) printers are becoming increasingly popular in home and professional applications. There are many advantages to using 3D printers, including quicker, more economical and high throughput prototype evaluation. 3D printers currently offer a number of solutions for selective deposition modeling for professional use.
A typical printing system applies a UV curable hot melt material to a non-curable wax support via inkjet. Each layer, typically microns in size, is cured after deposition. When the fabrication is complete, the support material is washed, melted or blasted away, depending on its composition, leaving the 3D fabrication. The UV curable materials are available in a wide variety of physical characteristics (e.g., tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural strength, and the like), but in a limited number of colors, and using different colors presents a particular challenge due to differing rates of curing and final curing hardness value which may preclude printing articles with multiple colors.